The new 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid is reported to have the same MPG as
previous years, despite having a slightly larger engine and a few more
horsepower. The 2008 FEH 4x4 nets 29 MPG city, and 27 MPG Hwy. So
does the 2009.

"At the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Headquarters in Venice, Ford
presented 10 four-wheel-drive Beach Patrol Escape Hybrids, establishing
a fleet that will grow to 45 vehicles. Beyond the graphics, a light
bar, and an assortment of rescue gear, the Baywatch Edition is pretty
much standard-issue Escape Hybrid, with a new-for-2009 2.5-liter
Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder engine and a 70-kilowatt permanent magnet
AC synchronous motor. With four-wheel drive, it'll return 29 mpg in
town (or on the beach), and 27 mpg on the highway."
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/ford-escape-hyb.html

I know some of us would have liked to see the same or smaller engine
size with MORE MPG, but is this still an improvement? Is Ford moving
forward, backward, or sideways?

 

I don't care that they improved the braking or suspension vs. my '08, but I would have been a little bummed if they increased the FE (for selfish reasons of course). However, just because the EPA is the same, it doesn't mean that the '09s won't beat the '08s--especially on the highway where things like the variable valve timing should give an added boost if you're light on the throttle.

I think Ford is moving forward in the direction that they think customers want to go (i.e. more power without an FE hit). I'm sure that decision was made when gas was $3/g. I'm curious what decision would have been made if gas had been $5/g--which is the price it will for most of that model's lifecycle.

 

More power..... larger (or at least designed to look larger--my fiancee thinks the '08s are larger). Sounds to me like a lot of old thinking.

They up the engine size or HP in everything else to claim bigger stats.... why would the marketing people think anything different for the hybrids.

 

BTW, are these plug in? The rear bumper graphics say "PIEV" which I am guessing means "Plug In Electric Vehicle", and there is that plug just off center on the bottom of the rear bumper.

 

Well, I don't really think that going from rear discs, to rear drums, is really much of an improvement.

I seem to have no problems using the brakes on my '07 without the need for video game like "force feedback" on the pedal.

 

My theory is Ford is sandbagging on the FE issue. Consider the following:

* Given that oil is zooming to $200/barrel and the spoiled U.S. consumer will finally pay fuel prices approaching what they have been paying in Europe for decades, added to the crumbling Republican bulwark against energy policy progress, it is a cinch you will see legislative mandate for higher MPG in cars within the next few years.

* FEH sales seem to be limited more by production than anything else (I think batteries are still the critical-path item, aren't they?) they would not sell any more FEHs if they got 34MPH instead of 30MPH. (YMMV but the point still stands.)

* There are two major (as well as several minor) technology paths to getting the same car to higher MPG: a) the high-capacity battery stuff you read so much about here, and, what you don't read so much about here is b) the carbon composite fabrication technologies that will ultimately drastically reduce the weight of the vehicles we drive. Right now only a small percentage of the energy produced by burning the gas actually goes to moving the payload (usually just one driver and a beer) where the vehicle frame/shell weighs 20x what the payload does. A 747 made out of steel would never get off the ground, but we accept those percentages in our cars.


If I were Ford (or Toyota or Honda for that matter) I would adopt this strategy. At some point there will be a market necessity to increase MPG drastically. You can argue about when, but it will come. When it does, I would want to be able to just "throw a switch" and the 30MPG FEH becomes a 40-50-100MPG or whatever. For 2009 it doesn't matter -- they will sell what they can build and that's that.

 

Look closer.... its "PZEV" Partial Zero Emission Vehicle. Which a standard Hybrid Escape is. No plug in here.

 

Aren't the ones in that picture '09s? If so those back brakes look like discs to me don't they to you?

 

I believe those are 08's since the 09's don't start up until late June (unless Fleet production is already going).

 

Yea, you are right.

Plus, if I look even more closer, they have a trailer hitch, and that plug on the bumper is the trailer wiring plug.